- Burning Blaze and the Coconut Crew is mentioned by name, solidifying their canon status in the books. - Pretty much ALL the names of Robotnik's family makes the Data Files. We have names of Maria's parents, Gerald's wife, Hope's mother, and Snively's mother (Something of interest: Gerald's wife has a Hispanic last name (Vasquez) and their son (Maria's father) is also named Geraldo. I always thought of the Robotniks as a bunch of white dudes but they might have some Hispanic blood which sort of makes sense.)- Remember Titan Metal Sonic mentioned in Issue #231's solicit? Well apparently, we know what he is now. The big red Metal Sonic Kai from Knuckles Chaotix is listed in the "Metal Sonic Series" Data File (since he appeared in the Knuckles Chaotix issue, obviously) and here Ian named him Titan Metal Sonic. I guess that answers that. - Hope is stated as being blood related to the Robotnik family and Snively's half-sister. She was lied to about her origin only so she would be distanced from the Robotnik clan.- Abraham Tower's past is revealed, and his childhood is exactly the same as his origin in the Shadow game. After he grew up he joined G.U.N. and participated in the "Heritage Project" and was even in charge of Soleanna at one point. Its also revealed how he thought G.U.N. was corrupt (because of the ARK Incident) and when he became Commander he changed the organization within.- It is also stated that while Shadow and Tower respect each other and put aside their past to work for a better tomorrow, the two do have tension between each other. Tower harbors indifference towards Shadow for Maria's death like he did in Shadow's game.

Also of note is that the Amazon preorder for the Encyclopedia states that it will be out in.....

Spoiler:

2035.

Which is not cool.

Word of God (Flynn) says that Encyclopedia could possibly be serialised (IE, come out in installations, perhaps even in 32 page comic format of sorts, before final collection in hardcover) and could possibly begin publication.... 1-2 years from now. Which is a far cry from the other tally. That was mentioned about 2-3 months ago, so it's not that huge a gap... Any other comments or the like, feel free to post it here!

Also, we already know that some data files have surfaced from time to time in the comic books. When they needed to fill pages, and all that good nonsense. A fairly memorable Finitevus picture including the unused interior striping on his cloak (drawn by Spaz, no less) was in one of these, I believe during the mid-140s range.... Data files have also surfaced in the FCBD issues, though a good deal of those had been 'censored' at the time - we now know some of those to be DEL designs, but hell, I think that was 2007!!

As for new data files...

Spoiler:

If you pick up the reprinted, hardcover copy of, say, the SU #1-4 Shadow Saga reprints, you'll find 9 brand spankin' new data files at the end of it. On glossy paper. And, inked covers without colours (or the pencils, it's pretty sketchy on the details *shot for bad pun*). Oh, and the Off Panel comics, only larger. It's worth the money.